


sky full of stars

by fourleafchloe



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Hurt Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Oblivious Adrien Agreste, Protective Chat Noir
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-24 16:32:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18167549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fourleafchloe/pseuds/fourleafchloe
Summary: She isn't even crying. There is no great explosion, no fanfare to the way she breaks.Marinette is oh-so-quietly crumbling into tiny little pieces.





	sky full of stars

**Author's Note:**

> something bad happened a few days ago 
> 
> I don't know how to process any of it and I ended up writing this 
> 
> please check the tags for warnings

 

. 

 

. 

 

. 

 

Marinette curls her arms around her stomach, shivering in bed. 

She isn't sobbing. She isn’t even crying. There is no great explosion, no fanfare to the way she breaks. 

She's oh-so-quietly crumbling into tiny little pieces. 

 

* * *

 

 

It's dumb. She shouldn't get so worked up over— 

Over— 

Over  _ nothing.  _

“It's  _ nothing, _ Marinette,” she hisses at herself, tugging at her hair. 

But it doesn't feel like nothing. 

It feels like hands on her body that she didn't ask for. 

It feels like being backed into a corner, trying to stammer some kind of excuse that would let her get away, only to come up empty. 

 

* * *

 

 

Tikki was asleep in her purse when it happened. 

There was no Ladybug coming to her rescue. It was a cold reminder that at her core, she was nobody. Just Marinette. Just a girl. Just another helpless little baby doll for some guy on the street to come along and— 

 

* * *

 

 

“Marinette?” 

She blinks. Tikki's gazing up at her, floating close in front of her faze, eyes shining with concern. 

“What's wrong?” Tikki asks softly, and Marinette shakes her head. 

“Nothing. It's… nothing.” It isn't a lie. Marinette knows it's not a big deal. It's not like the guy  _ raped _ her. 

He just— 

Touched her. Hugged her, squeezed her close, felt her up a little, and put his hands— 

_ Put his hands—  _

Marinette shuts her eyes tight. 

It's  _ no big deal.  _

She turns away, mumbling something about being tired. She hears Tikki sigh, but the kwami doesn't press. 

She has trouble falling asleep. 

She can't stop feeling the man's hands on her, invisible, crawling over her skin in the dark. 

 

* * *

 

 

“Chat,” Ladybug whispers one night, “on patrol, have you ever seen—” 

She stutters, halts, struggles to form words. 

“M'lady?” Chat murmurs, green eyes so much more perceptive than she used to think. At first, Ladybug knows that she didn't give this boy enough credit for the incredible  _ listener _ that he is. 

She shakes her head. 

“Never mind,” she mumbles, and they split up to cover the city as always. 

 

* * *

 

 

Later, atop the Eiffel Tower, she tries again to speak, but she's hardly opened her mouth before Chat's intercepting her. 

“Something on your mind?” he asks, a coy smile on his face, and Ladybug takes one deep, deep breath. 

“Have you ever seen girls getting harassed on patrol,” she says all in a rush. 

Chat pauses. 

She can't breathe. She can't  _ breathe _ why did she just  _ say _ that— 

“Once or twice,” he admits, finally. “I stepped in, of course. Turned the guys in, walked the girls home.” 

His words are uncharacteristically absent of any humor, any puns. It takes Ladybug a second to realize that she's grateful for it. She'd be a thousand kinds of hurt if Chat Noir tried to joke about this. 

“Something happened, didn't it,” Chat murmurs, and Ladybug eyes his hands. She nods, trying to keep her own from trembling; she notes the way his clench into fists. Subtle, but the reaction is very much there. 

He's angry. 

She doesn't see that often. 

“Oh, Bug,” he says. “Shit. That’s— _ shit. _ ” 

Once in awhile the nickname irks her, but right now she needs it like nothing else. It feels like a link, something tying her close to Chat—to her partner, to the boy who's so quickly become her everything. 

She would trust him with her life. She does trust him with it, day after day. 

 

* * *

 

 

_ In a sky full of stars,  _

_ I think I saw you.  _

 

* * *

 

 

He opens his arms, and she falls into them. 

 

* * *

 

 

“I'm sorry, Bugaboo,” he says softly. 

“It's  _ nothing, _ ” she whispers, like the words are poison. 

“It’s not nothing,” he says, as though she really is allowed to be so hurt by this, and Ladybug closes her eyes and tries so _hard_ to believe him. 

 

* * *

 

 

Marinette mumbles out some sort of half-explanation that night to her very confused kwami, because there's really no getting out of it now. 

Tikki cries.

 

* * *

 

 

At home in the cold, dark Agreste mansion, so does Adrien. 

 

* * *

 

 

Marinette walks into school laughing on Monday morning, side by side with Alya, painting on a smile designed for deception. She wants them to see she's okay. Her partner finding out is bad enough; she can't let this slip to anyone else. 

Maybe, if it stays secret, she can forget it ever happened. 

Her smiles fools every last one of them, and this time, even Chat Noir doesn't see through the ruse. 

 

* * *

 

 

_ You’re such a heavenly view.  _

 

_.  _

 

_.  _

 

_.  _

 

**Author's Note:**

> love you all <3 
> 
> thanks for reading


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